> There are a ton of products on the market that are vastly more dangerous than computers
The thing with chainsaws and motorcycles is that they look and feel dangerous, and people have an intuitive understanding of how to approach those dangers.
If you ask a random person on the street about safe motorcycle riding, they'll probably tell you about respecting speed limits, wearing protective gear, only doing it when sober, not pulling stunts / showing off etc. I've never been on a motorcycle, have 0 interest in them, and I know those things.
Computers don't work that way. People can't distinguish between a real banking app and a fake banking app that looks real, an update pop-up and a fake "you need to update Adobe Flash Player" pop-up on a phishing website etc.
I've done plenty of "helping non-technical people out with computers" during my middle / secondary school days. That was when people still used Windows a lot, as opposed to doing everything on their phones. Most computers I've seen back then had some app that hijacked your start page, changed your search engine to something strange, would constantly open random websites with "dpwnload now free wallpapers and ring tones for your mobile now" etc. You didn't even have to fall for a scam to get something like that, plenty of reputable software came with such "add-ons", because that's how you made money back then.
I feel like that era of "total freedom" has somehow been erased from our minds, and we're looking at things through rose-tinted glasses. I, for one, vastly prefer the world of personalized ads and invasive surveillance over one where I constantly have to be on alert for my default browser being changed to Google Chrome for the hundredth time this year, just because I decided to update Skype.
> If you ask a random person on the street about safe motorcycle riding, they'll probably tell you about respecting speed limits, wearing protective gear, only doing it when sober, not pulling stunts / showing off etc. I've never been on a motorcycle, have 0 interest in them, and I know those things.
How did this matter? People may know these things, but they nonetheless ignore speed limits, don't wear helmets, drive drunk, pull stunts, etc. And the motorcycle manufacturer can't stop them. They have the freedom to harm themselves.
> Computers don't work that way. People can't distinguish between a real banking app and a fake banking app that looks real
Guess what, people can't distinguish between the real and fake apps in the crApp Store either. Let's stop pretending that it's safe, when we've seen over and over that it's not.
> That was when people still used Windows a lot, as opposed to doing everything on their phones.
People still use Windows a lot. Smartphones have not replaced desktop computers but rather added to desktop computers. Almost every desktop computer owner also has a smartphone I believe that desktop computer sales are as high now as ever; I know that's true for Apple Macs, specifically.
> I feel like that era of "total freedom" has somehow been erased from our minds, and we're looking at things through rose-tinted glasses.
It hasn't been erased. The desktop never left. It's been surpassed in volume by smartphones, of course, but let's not pretend that desktops were somehow made obsolete and removed from the Earth. The people who have enough money buy smartphones and desktops. Many even have a smartphone, a desktop/laptop, and a tablet. The choice is not about security, it's about money and form factor. When I leave home, I put a phone in my pocket. When I'm on the couch, I use a laptop. When I'm reading an ebook, I use a tablet.
> You didn't even have to fall for a scam to get something like that, plenty of reputable software came with such "add-ons", because that's how you made money back then.
That's why you never blindly clicked "next" in installers. Everyone got one of those IE toolbars accidentally at some point, but it usually only took doing it once to learn the lesson.
The thing with chainsaws and motorcycles is that they look and feel dangerous, and people have an intuitive understanding of how to approach those dangers.
If you ask a random person on the street about safe motorcycle riding, they'll probably tell you about respecting speed limits, wearing protective gear, only doing it when sober, not pulling stunts / showing off etc. I've never been on a motorcycle, have 0 interest in them, and I know those things.
Computers don't work that way. People can't distinguish between a real banking app and a fake banking app that looks real, an update pop-up and a fake "you need to update Adobe Flash Player" pop-up on a phishing website etc.
I've done plenty of "helping non-technical people out with computers" during my middle / secondary school days. That was when people still used Windows a lot, as opposed to doing everything on their phones. Most computers I've seen back then had some app that hijacked your start page, changed your search engine to something strange, would constantly open random websites with "dpwnload now free wallpapers and ring tones for your mobile now" etc. You didn't even have to fall for a scam to get something like that, plenty of reputable software came with such "add-ons", because that's how you made money back then.
I feel like that era of "total freedom" has somehow been erased from our minds, and we're looking at things through rose-tinted glasses. I, for one, vastly prefer the world of personalized ads and invasive surveillance over one where I constantly have to be on alert for my default browser being changed to Google Chrome for the hundredth time this year, just because I decided to update Skype.